Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated semiconductor circuit configuration having conductor tracks or interconnects that run in at least two different planes, in which conductor tracks in at least one of the planes are provided in close proximity and essentially parallel to one another.
During the fabrication of integrated semiconductor circuit configurations, such as semiconductor memories for example, if, by way of example, conductor tracks run closely adjacent and parallel to one another and one of those conductor tracks is interrupted, it is possible for so-called proximity effects to occur. Those effects ultimately result in a conductor track exhibiting a critical location in such a region, at which the conductor track can become unstable and even tend toward an interruption. That instability is explained below with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 3 shows how a discontinuity affects a conductor track.
If such discontinuities are present on both sides of a conductor track, then such a conductor track may become constable, and it may even break.
Such critical locations of conductor tracks need not necessarily be due only to so-called proximity effects. Conductor tracks can also be guided in certain ways, having to do especially with curvatures having a small radius of curvature, that can lead to such critical locations.
It goes without saying that such critical locations are highly undesirable, which is why the geometrical dimensions of the conductor tracks are often enlarged at those locations. However, such a procedure has the disadvantage of causing the conductor tracks and the spacings between them to thus inevitably be enlarged, which is at odds with the constant striving to miniaturize integrated semiconductor circuit configurations.